Few insane fights I would have loved to see and obviously am talking prime for prime:
Ike Ibeabuchi vs Tyson
Ike Quartey vs Trinidad
Ray Mercer vs Tyson
Bowe vs Lewis
Good call .
For me Pacquiao / Valero was a super huge missed opportunity .
I'd see Valero at the gyms . The guy was vicious and there was already talk about him and Pac squaring off before his death .
Vicious is the word that springs to mind. That would have been an incredible fight.
When did Bradley fight TBE? (Mayweather) Another Pac fanboy I see. 118-110 TBE. To help you with future scoring, Pac won Rounds 4 and 6.
Don't be dense. In 2011 a lot of people had Pacquiao as top pound-for-pound. It was an open question as to who was on top, but at the time Pacquiao was more active (six fights between 2009-2011 compared to Mayweather's three) and Floyd wasn't helped by the unusual way his 2011 fight with Victor Ortiz ended.
Google "2011 boxing pound for pound rankings" and you can see what people thought at the time. For example here is Ring Magazine ranking Manny as p4p #1 above Floyd:
https://boxrec.com/media/index.php/The_Ring_Magazine's_Annual_Ratings:_2011
In 2012 perceptions flipped as Manny lost both his fights that year, first to Bradley which most felt was controversial and then to Marquez which was very uncontroversial.
Leo Santa Cruz vs Guillermo Rigondeaux, even though Santa Cruz kept calling out Rigo in every post-fight interview right after dismantling a sparring partner. Finally, Jim Gray exasperatingly advised, "Well, tell your management team to make the fight for you."
Oscar, who still had right to LSC's fights, DID try to make the fight. Unfortunately, Haymon bought LSC's remaining contract with LSC's joyful blessings.
I would have really liked to see Bradley-Maidana and Bradley-Khan in 2010-2011. Bradley-Maidana was at one point negotiated but Maidana had to pull out due to a back injury. Style wise Bradley-Maidana would have been a war, although I feel Tim probably would have fought a more disciplined fight than his approach against Provodnikov. I always felt Maidana was very underrated for most of his time as an active fighter, and though I wouldn't pick him over Tim I 'm confident he would have been very competitive and dangerous throughout.
Bradley-Khan was very publicly negotiated and even sounded like a done deal at times, but promotional disputes with Gary Shaw led Bradley to join Top Rank and pursue Pacquiao instead. A lot of people feel Bradley ducked Khan, I personally don't take anything said publicly about negotiations at face value and in any case I wouldn't call a guy "ducking" when he goes to fight the #1 p4p guy instead, but I still think it's a huge shame we never got Bradley-Khan to settle who was the best at 140 when both were in their primes. As division rivals they had an intriguing style matchup, with Bradley being a jack-of-all-trades fighter who lacked "flash" but still got the job done, and Khan being a very specialized physical specimen with his extraordinary hand speed. Up until Bradley fought Pacquiao, he had never faced a guy with hand speed comparable to Khan's, and we all know that speed kills. I don't believe either fighter would have knocked the other guy out if they had fought, and my opinion is that if they fought it would be a strafey, tactical figght that I would favor Bradley to win on his footwork.
When did Bradley fight TBE? (Mayweather) Another Pac fanboy I see. 118-110 TBE. To help you with future scoring, Pac won Rounds 4 and 6.
Personally speaking...
Bowe v Lewis
Pacquiao v Valero
Leonard v Curry
Hearns v McCallum
Tyson v Witherspoon
Holmes v Foreman
Calzaghe v Froch
Hatton vs Witter
Good call .
For me Pacquiao / Valero was a super huge missed opportunity .
I'd see Valero at the gyms . The guy was vicious and there was already talk about him and Pac squaring off before his death .
Im always sad that we never saw Morales, Marquez and Cotto fighting each other
Victor Ortiz vs Provodnikov would have been fun in appropriate time
Sugar Ray Leonard vs Aaron Pryor. Fight was supposed to happen too, wasn't it? If I remember right Pryor accepted the fight already..
Guerrero vs Broner, even though they met face-to-face in a parking lot agreeing to fight each other. Broner's parting shot to Robert, "Send the contract over and I'll sign it."
(The video is still on youtube.)
Dana White would have made that fight at the drop of a hat.
Broner vs Matthysse, even though they called out each other after experiencing their respective loses to Maidana and Garcia.
"Hope he's not joking," quipped Lucas.
It never happened. Matthysse left Haymon and signed back to GBP.
Charlo twins vs Lara, even though they're all title holders and with the same uncle at PBC. They all preferred to fight cans.
Charlo vs Jacobs, even though Jacobs called Jermall's BS at a venue's exit hall.
Lara vs Andrade, even though Andrade was hanging out at Showtiime waiting for offers. Lara preferred to fight Gausha.
Haymon is a huge cancer.
Victor ortiz vs Brandon Rios
Prime Andre Dirrell vs Andre ward
Morales vs Marquez
List some great Matchups that never came to be .
Andre Dirrell v Andre Ward? For real? Ward would of took that fools soul.
... in fact, Dirrell and Ward were "buddies", back then... Ward accepted to fight at an upper weight class at the Olympics in Athens, only in order to protect his buddy Andre... :)
Unfortunetely, there's many... maybe more than great fight that did happen.
Some example from top of my head:
Golovkin vs Pirog (Was signed)
Braldey vs Maidana that The Ninth Layer mentioned... that was signed too. I belive Bradley pulled out but I might be wrong.
Rios vs Provodnikov
Gamboa vs JuanMa (Obviously)
Marc Johnson vs Yuri Arbachakov
Edwin Valero vs Yodsanan Sor Nanthachai (Yodsanan was highly ranked when Edwin was a champion, that would of been crazy war)
Lennox Lewis vs Riddick Bowe
Roman Gonzalez vs Naoya Inoue
Erik Morales vs Juan Manuel Marquez
Shane Mosley vs Felix Trinidad vs Ike Quartey (No match-up happen between the 3 sadly).
...and many more.
Personally speaking...
Bowe v Lewis
Pacquiao v Valero
Leonard v Curry
Hearns v McCallum
Tyson v Witherspoon
Holmes v Foreman
Calzaghe v Froch
Hatton vs Witter
I would have really liked to see Bradley-Maidana and Bradley-Khan in 2010-2011. Bradley-Maidana was at one point negotiated but Maidana had to pull out due to a back injury. Style wise Bradley-Maidana would have been a war, although I feel Tim probably would have fought a more disciplined fight than his approach against Provodnikov. I always felt Maidana was very underrated for most of his time as an active fighter, and though I wouldn't pick him over Tim I 'm confident he would have been very competitive and dangerous throughout.
Bradley-Khan was very publicly negotiated and even sounded like a done deal at times, but promotional disputes with Gary Shaw led Bradley to join Top Rank and pursue Pacquiao instead. A lot of people feel Bradley ducked Khan, I personally don't take anything said publicly about negotiations at face value and in any case I wouldn't call a guy "ducking" when he goes to fight the #1 p4p guy instead, but I still think it's a huge shame we never got Bradley-Khan to settle who was the best at 140 when both were in their primes. As division rivals they had an intriguing style matchup, with Bradley being a jack-of-all-trades fighter who lacked "flash" but still got the job done, and Khan being a very specialized physical specimen with his extraordinary hand speed. Up until Bradley fought Pacquiao, he had never faced a guy with hand speed comparable to Khan's, and we all know that speed kills. I don't believe either fighter would have knocked the other guy out if they had fought, and my opinion is that if they fought it would be a strafey, tactical figght that I would favor Bradley to win on his footwork.